


The Second Hand Unwinds

by HawthornShadow



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Temporary Character Death, Time Loop, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 05:48:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15042122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HawthornShadow/pseuds/HawthornShadow
Summary: One year after the fall of Insomnia, you wake up expecting darkness and instead see a hotel room in Galdin Quay.





	The Second Hand Unwinds

You watch the seconds count down. It’s the end.

And then it’s the beginning.

 

* * *

 

 

You wake with a gasp, rolling out of bed as adrenaline floods your system. Dawn is starting to break outside the hotel windows, and as you begin to calm your breathing you heave a quiet sigh.

One more loop it is.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s your second loop and your thoughts are in chaos. You rage at first, but none of the others understand. Ignis can’t tell you why you’re back here again. Noctis can’t tell you why you are alone in remembering. Prompto…

Prompto can’t tell you why he isn’t dead.

You had lost him at Gralea. Turned around and found him impaled on a sword, shooting you one last watery grin before tumbling off the catwalk into the void below.

Noctis had screamed, taking out daemons and MTs alike with renewed vigour. In any other situation you would have been proud, but instead you were just determined. You had to get Noct to the crystal. You couldn’t afford to break down then. That’s what later was for, after this mess.

So you got Noct to the crystal, and then you and Ignis had to leave two of your closest friends behind in that accursed place so that you could survive to come back for them. Or what was left of them. You tried not to think about that.

Ten months passed, every day as dark as the last, and every day your hope dimmed a little bit more.

And then you woke up in a hotel room in Galdin Quay.

 

* * *

 

 

Your third loop is a mess, more so than the second, but you blame that on the way you exited the previous loop. Things go downhill quickly.

You wake in agony, phantom pains sending you almost into unconsciousness again. Mentally you make a note. It’s not fun to die.

You’d been so lost the previous loop, with your head stuck in memories that never happened. The others had assumed it to be shock from the fall of Insomnia. Either way, you had paid the price.

Lack of awareness had lead to an MT near taking your head off, which explains the headache. Not the rest of it though. Maybe it’s some sort shock from being dead.

Dead. You were dead. Like Prompto. And now you’re back.

At least this time travel stuff is useful for something.

You’re in bed when you get the news a third time. Somehow you had managed to fall asleep again, and Ignis is the one to shake you awake to tell you about Insomnia’s fall. Noctis is already packing.

You remember to keep your head about you this time, and if you seem quieter than usual no-one questions it. Everyone is quieter than normal, except Noctis in his grief-fueled anger.

You decide to follow the same timeline as the first time, as best you can remember it.

It doesn’t go well.

You lose Ignis at Altissia, deep beneath the waves of the Leviathan.

Prompto follows not long after, on the train to Gralea.

And in the end you get Noct to the crystal and leave alone and wonder if any of it was really worth it.

After months of darkness, you decide that it’s not.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s your fourth loop, and you are going to end this early. You sneak out of the hotel room, before any of the others wake, and set out to find Chancellor Izunia.

He seems like the one behind all this, and any way you look at it he’s a threat. You’ve already lost friends to the man’s schemes three times now.

You can’t find him. A daemon finds you.

And you wake up in agony again.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s your fifth loop and you’re tired. Somehow you convince the others to go to Insomnia without you. The pain lessens until you can move again.

You find Ardyn.

His eyes pierce your soul and his blade pierces your stomach.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s your sixth loop and you try again.

This time you don’t get close enough for him to strike you. It doesn’t matter.

You’re on the ground, vision fading to black, and he just looks disappointed that you hadn’t put up more of a fight.

 

* * *

 

 

Your seventh loop you take time to recover. You can still feel where your scars should be, those wounds that nobody could recover from. Sometimes you glance at Prompto and wonder how he’s still breathing. Sometimes you look at Ignis and wonder how he doesn’t expel water with every word.

Sometimes you look at Noct and feel proud that through every loop he always remains untouched.

And then you remember that it doesn’t matter.

 

* * *

 

 

Your eighth loop it doesn’t matter.

 

* * *

 

 

Your ninth loop it doesn’t matter.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s your tenth loop, and the others know something is wrong. They can hear it in your voice and even more in your silence. You die before they can ask.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s your eleventh loop and you finally get ahold of yourself. You focus. You try to respond to questions as you would have, you keep everybody alive.

You hug your sister a little tighter than expected.

In Altissia you keep an extra close eye on Ignis. If he notices, he doesn’t say, too used to you watching everybody’s back by now.

You lose track of him and the worry almost gets you killed until you find him again, and Noctis.

Ignis is blind. He’s blind.

But he’s not dead and you find yourself far more thankful for that.

Prompto gets killed or kidnapped and you have every hope it’s kidnapped, even if you are more used to killed.

You get to Gralea too late and you find out it’s killed.

Noct gets to the crystal. You and Ignis leave.

You find a sort of irony in Ignis’ blindness now. At least he’s already used to the dark this time.

 

* * *

 

 

Your twelfth loop goes much the same way except you hurry and find Prompto and make sure to walk at the back of the group to prevent any stray swords from reaching the insides of the person you came to rescue.

You hadn’t planned to block them with your body but it happens anyway.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s your thirteenth loop and you realise you’re not strong enough to protect your friends. You had never been. Heck, most of the time you couldn’t even protect yourself.

So you train and you train, until you remember that it doesn’t matter anyway because you’ll lose it all next time you die, or when the year resets again. Because it always does.

 

* * *

 

 

Your fourteenth loop is spent planning. You carry around a small journal, hidden inside the cover of one of your romance novels, and no-one thinks anything of it. In it you make note of everything you can remember so far.

Your memories of the first time are vague, but you at least work out how the loop resets. Either a year passes since the fall of Insomnia, or you die.

There’s the grim thought that the loop only resets after a year anyway, and that each time you die you leave your friends to face the horrors without you, but you push it down into the depths of your subconscious and endeavour never to uncover it again.

You spend so much time focussing on events of the past that you fail to keep track of the now, and Ignis dies with water in his lungs. That night, you take your own sword and restart.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s your fifteenth loop and you know that it’s not worth it if only some of you reach the end. You’ve accepted that Noctis must enter the crystal, but Ignis and Prompto do not have to die on the way. Neither do you.

You’re annoyed to remember that your journal wouldn’t travel with you, but it doesn’t take long to write it out new. Thinking of the best timelines only, you make a list of events and actions that have to happen for everyone to survive. You memorise it.

Iris is still Iris and you’re glad that despite the chaos you live in she remains unchanged.

You reach Gralea, and then Noctis goes down for the first time.

Ardyn looks enraged when he strides in, the first true emotion you’ve seen cross his face.

In a heartbeat you are all dead.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s your sixteenth loop and you know you’re still not strong enough. Not to go up against gods and monsters of legend. Gasping for breath, you put your hand over your heart and just lay there, feeling it beat, feeling your lungs expand and deflate, feeling yourself live. It’s hard to remember sometimes that you’re still alive.

You’re still alive but you need to be stronger.

You’re still not sure how to go about it, but rumours have you thinking. In order to beat a legend, perhaps you need a legend.

But then time passes and Ignis is blind, and Noctis is raging over the unfairness of everything, and if only he knew. Prompto gets caught in the middle but you can’t bring yourself to care. You know you can’t watch out for them all at the moment, and Noctis isn’t making it any easier by being a brat.

And then you split up, and you die alone with your regret.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s your seventeenth loop and you’re prepared, but not quite strong enough yet.

You write your journal, as precise as you can get it, and plan. This loop will be the last, you’ll make sure of it.

You’re going to make sure all of your friends survive. You’re going to act naturally, like the first Gladio, the naïve one, would have.

You’re going to seek out Cor, and you’re going to get the power of legends on your side. Or even for yourself, if you can manage it.

You’re going to spend time with your sister, because you’ve seen her face so little in the years that have passed that you almost can’t remember it, and you need to appreciate what you have to come back to after everything.

The journal gets tucked into your pocket, and you’re ready to go, ready to finally end this. With steady hands, you take the newspaper Ignis passes to you. The debate about returning to Insomnia starts, and you look to Noctis for his opinion.

“Turn back?”

“Yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is an entry for the FFXV & Chill Discord One Year Anniversary Competition. I thought it might be a fun way to get back into FFXV and back into writing in general.


End file.
